Gay Manhattan judge will lose father's inheritance unless he marries a woman

What an awful grandfather, he would single out one or two of his grandchildren just because he or she has gay parents. :tantrum:

I sure hope Robert Mandelbaum wins this, it's just silly now. :eusa_doh:

 

While I totally agree that the grandfather is horrendous for making this will in this way, I disagree that Robert Mandelbaum should win this.
That money was earned by his father and he has every right to do with it what he wants.
If he tells him son that the only way he, or his progeny, can get it is if they adhere to certain rules, then it is up to them to choose whether to accept the terms and take the money or not.

 

Your argument seems valid. Still rooting for Robert though! Not from a legal standpoint, but from a more ethical one!

Discrimination within the family kinda blows, because now if he can't overturn the will, he would have to divorce his husband and marry a woman he can't love (and then evenutally maybe divorce again and remarry his ex husband?) to get that money for his children? Is all the fuss even worth it?

Wonder if dead grandpa, knowing this, even stopped to think of what his grandchildren would think of him. Or maybe he didn't really care, which is equally sad. Oh well.

 

Anyone else confused about the timeline? The father died in 2007. His will sets aside money for three grandchildren. The gay son's child (btw born via surrogate, not from a previous relationship) wasn't born until 16 months prior to when he married his husband in 2011. That puts the kid's birth in either 2009 or 2010 and the pregnancy as early as 2008. I'm confused how the father provisioned this in the will without the kid even conceived yet.

 

Ethically speaking, Robert should turn down the money.
It's not ethical to change someones will after they die, at least I don't believe it is.
Was the man a nasty piece of work for writing that in his will? Well, with the very little information I am privvy to, it certainly seems that way, but that was his wish for his belongings.

Mind you, for the record, I wouldn't have any issue with Robert taking the money. It's not his by any sort of right and his father didn't want him to have it, but his father is dead, so what does it matter what happens to the money?
Just within the confines of the law he adheres to, it's not his(or his sons), he has no rights to it, and his father didn't want him to have it unless he followed certain rules.
In that situation he only has 2 choices - follow the rules and get the money or live the rest of his life happy with his family but without the money.

I don't follow that he has to divorce his husband for the money - he doesn't have the money, he didn't have it before his father died and yet he still, seemingly, has a successful life, so why would he give that up for $180k?

In this situation I would just forget about the money.

 

He could actually challenge it if he wanted to. Depending on how well of an argument the lawyer puts together, they can get around it.

I don't remember the specifics, but the terms of a will can be superseded by a judge if it deems to cause trauma to the person involved. (For instance, if a will said X will only get the money if they cut off their arm) Only in this case, it would be emotional.

It's just a matter on if the guy wants to challenge it. However, there's also the fact the will is NOT referring to the guy, but his son. As such, it's actually quite simple to argue that a will cannot force one person to do one thing to get money for another. There's been wills in the past thrown out by a judge in the first day because the will stipulated (prenuptial) that the woman cannot marry again, or all the money must be paid back, or that if he dies, she must marry his brother to get the money, etc.

I honestly don't see this being an issue, if he actually tries to challenge it.

 

It is odd. However, it could be that the will set aside money for the children in his marriage to the women of of his child. Meaning he wouldnt get the money if he knocked a girl up and they didnt get married. The whole ancient "do the right thing" ideal.

Overall, the money would be nice, but he certainly shouldnt need it as a judge. Married at that :/.

 

Sounds like a lot of red tape, but could he temporarily divorce, marry the woman, collect the money, divorce her, then remarry his partner? This is all legally, mind you. He wouldn't actually be breaking up with his partner.

Unfortunately, there's not much else that can be done here if he's not willing or able to do that. The father was either clueless (which I wouldn't blame him too much over) or did this maliciously to punch him right in the gut.

 

Usually when in a will, stipulations like this also come with length of marriage, so you'll probably find they'll have to spend about 10 years together.
As the child is only 16 months, the likelihood is it wouldn't get it for nearly 17 years anyway, so that will all be a factor.

 

I heard about this! ridiculous, right? this guy would cheap out his grandchildren of inheritance because of their father (his son) being GAY? how's that have ANYTHING to do with the grandchildren? this is seriously getting under my skin that he did this. and unfortunately there's virtually nothing anyone can do about it. I hope Robert just says f*** the inheritance i am who i am and my father couldn't see that even as he was dying he refused to accept me...how terrible.

 

Well, here's another thing to consider. What would the legality of a will be if it insisted that the child's wife be a white woman? Would that be thrown out?

Most likely, what I think will happen is a mixed bag: the mandate will most likely be thrown out, but absent any legal basis to award the estate, the child still won't get the money as if he hadn't been mentioned in the will to begin with.

 

that's a really good point i haven't though about that

 

I hope the will gets overturned, but as I understand it, the money being contested is for the grandkids, not for the son himself. Did I misread this part, "Robert Mandelbaum's son Cooper Mandell will lose his inheritance if Robert is "not married to the child's mother within six months of the child's birth"?

So how much money did Robert himself inherit from his dead dad? If his dad was so rich, he probably already got a boat load of money so who cares about $180k? Maybe he didn't get any inheritance.

 

"Go to" gay conversion therapy. Divorce partner. Marry mother of child. Collect inheritance. Make a rock solid legally binding contract. Laugh all the way to the bank. Divorce woman. Remarry gay lover. Live the easy life. Thanks dad. The end.